Complete coverage of the campaign, reported and edited by the political staff of The Times and produced by NYTimes.com.

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POLITICAL POINTS | 11.05 1:15 PMThe End of the TrailBy CARL HULSE

It has been a long trek down the campaign trail, from the frozen fields of Iowa, through the New England towns of New Hampshire, on to rural South Dakota and around urban Boston and Manhattan with enough road trips to Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio to qualify for residency.

Much of it was fun and exciting, but as the end of the trail looms, it is time to take stock of the things that will not be missed.

For instance, no more hearing how the most important reason to send President Bush back to the White House is to give Laura Bush four more years as first lady, and no more talk about how Dick Cheney doesn't have the waviest hair in the vice presidential race.

No more cracks about how the two Democratic Johns have so much in common - one is People magazine's sexiest politician, the other reads People.

No more Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Or whatever.

No more "Bring It On" from any of the candidates. No more snappy salutes and reporting for duty.

No more voting for something before voting against it, and no more "Ask President Bush Really Easy Questions."

No more dawn baggage calls for the campaign press corps and no more political rally and convention-goers who loathe the press or love the press.

No more e-mails from e-mail happy campaigners who figure the best communication is constant communication. And you know who you are.

No more ads, ad critiques or ads critiquing other ads.

No more four more years.

But it won't be long - the handicapping for 2008 is under way. Until then, thanks for reading and happy trails to you.

Now that the elections are over, the race is on - the race to take credit for some of the victories, that is.

Interest groups that invested heavily in the victorious presidential and Congressional campaigns are touting their contributions to winning efforts to make it known that they are forces to be reckoned with.

For instance, today the National Rifle Association distributed a compilation of its work in South Dakota on behalf of Senator-elect John Thune, a Republican, in his successful effort to oust the Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle, from his South Dakota seat: 300 ads in 150 newspapers over three months, 1,200 radio spots on 50 stations, 750 television spots, 30 billboards and 150,000 combined mailings and phone calls.

On the other side of the political spectrum, the group Emily's List, which supports female candidates who back abortion rights, heralded the election of five new members it had promoted for the House, as well as the Democratic Senate incumbents supported by the group.

"Nationally, Emily's List members made more than 109,000 individual contributions to Emily's List candidates,'' a press release from the group declared. '' With an average contribution of just $98, Emily's List members contributed approximately $10.6 million to Emily's List candidates around the country.'''

Many others - the conservative Club for Growth, the League of Conservation Voters, the Republican Main Street Partnership - are trumpeting their aid as well. After all, what is the point of winning if you can't brag about it?

The Republicans' success in Senate races sent Democrats into a tailspin and provided a series of unique occurrences.

First, the election of Mel Martinez in Florida means he will be the first Cuban-American to serve in the Senate.

In Louisiana, David Vitter will be the first Republican ever to represent the state in the Senate.

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who was initially appointed to her Senate seat, became the first person born in Alaska elected to represent the state in the Senate, according to Senator George Allen of Virginia, who directed the Republican campaign effort.

And, Mr. Allen said, Senate victories in Georgia and South Carolina mean that for the first time those two states will be represented in the Senate strictly by Republicans.

And here's one the Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, no doubt could have lived without. He became the first Senate leader since 1952 to lose his election back home.

It always seems so clear when the election is over. Of course, Republicans were going to hold the Congress.

But in truth, Republicans on both sides of Capitol Hill were anxious about the outcome for weeks, uncertain how the public was going to respond to the war in Iraq and how those new and early voters were going to mark their ballots.

Senate and House Republican leaders breathed a sigh of relief as the night progressed and it became clear they would get to keep their spacious offices. "We're holding the seats we had to hold,'' said Speaker J. Dennis Hastert in an interview on CNN. "We lost a couple but that is to be expected.''

Among those losses was Representative Philip Crane of Illinois, the longest serving Republican in the House. There were several reasons for Mr. Crane's defeat by Melissa Bean, but one was unusual. Because there were few other high profile races in the Chicago area, the television stations in the Windy City latched on to the Crane race and covered it closely, giving Ms. Bean credibility and a wealth of publicity. Republicans are already plotting how to win that seat back in two years.

DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN | 3:35 AM ET
The Blog Warrior suspects that "Ohio is the new Florida." And Washington Monthly observes "the most remarkable thing about this presidential election is how nearly identical it is to 2000." Virginia Postrel, who writes a column for The New York Times notes that the old saw about this being the "most important election of my lifetime" may be a bit hackneyed.

I HOPE HE GOT ONE OF THOSE "LEI'D" T-SHIRTS | 3:19 AM ET
Despite Vice President Cheney's last-minute visit, the only visit by a major candidate since Nixon in 1960, the Honolulu Advertiser says it's still Blue Hawaii.

THE ENGLISH TAKE THEIR RESULTS DRY | 3:17 AM ET
The BBC's Stuart Hughes says, the fat lady's warming her lungs up. The race for the White House will soon be over -- and it looks like removal men won't be needed." Over at the Guardian, the NewsBlog reads John Edwards' body language. "His salutes to the crowd looked more like gestures of defiance than the confident waves of the future vice president."

THE DEBATE OF THE MOMENT? | 2:43 AM ET
At 2:30 a.m., the leading question at Eschaton is: Sleep or Leave? BuzzMachine opts to turn in. "Considering all the hemming and hawing on the networks ... I'm going to call it a night (or part thereof)."
After Sen. Edwards's speech, the sleep contingent will be gaining momentum. New Zealand is the leading destination for the expats-to-be.

LATE HOUR GRUMBLINGS | 2:41 AM ET
"The more I think about it, the more pissed off I am," writes The Daily Kos. Andrew Sullivan simply states: "it's over." Instapundit is impressed with Edwards' non-concession speech: "He's good. I expect we'll see him in the presidential race again." Blogolution.com, however, says the speech was given to "wet, forlorn supporters" in Boston.

READY AND APPARENTLY WILLING | 2:10 AM ETCleveland.com is prepared to let the spotlight shine on on Ohio and have it stay there. They're reminding everyone about the large number of absentee votes that won't be counted for several days. The Dayton Daily News and the Cincinatti Enquierer, however, state that the jury is out.

QUIET ON THE LEFT | 1:41 AM ET Many of the blogs on the left have fallen quiet, but Daily Kos writes an impassioned letter to his readers, saying it's not over, and "regardless of who takes that oath next January we still have a war to wage."

CONFUSION AT USA TODAY | 1:09 AM ETUSA Today seemed to be the first major news organization to declare President Bush the winner, then it quickly pulled back. MSNBC calls Ohio for Bush.

FROM THE POYNTER INSTITUTE | 1:07 AM ET Steve Outing, a senior editor at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, finds that "some new media don't play by the old rules." Poynter also has taken screen grabs of 101 news Web sites at various times throughout election night. They also showcase newspaper front pages from previous presidential elections and have an interesting collection of political cartoons from around the Web.

CARVILLE SETS OFF A STORM | 1:00 AM ET James Carville, a Democratic political kingpin not working for John Kerry, was so down on Mr. Kerry's Ohio chances on CNN that Instapundit and the National Review posted almost immediately. Drudge has declared President Bush the winner.

ALL ABOUT OHIO | 12:58 AM ET Drudge posted a UPI wire saying that the president has been told that he's won Ohio, and another four years. The other campaign sounds confident as well--Frank Bruni heard a top spokesman refer to a President-elect Kerry on television. President Bush is ahead in the official results, but the American Prospect's blog adds a bit of positive news for Senator Kerry: "This is basically scuttlebutt, but here goes. I hear that John Kerry has run up huge numbers in Ohio that are not yet reflected in the count."

Everyone agrees with something first predicted months ago: Ohio is the Florida of 2004. Knight Ridder's Ohioblog is a good one to follow for now.

THE VIEW FROM ABROAD | 12:22 AM ET Corine Lesnes, Le Monde's correspondent covering the American elections, discovers the American obsession with bloggers in pajamas. Newsblog, the frequently-updated blog from The Guardian in Britain, observes P. Diddy at the ballot. Stuart Hughes, a BBC News producer, is on the ground at the Bush "victory" party.

VOTE OR DIE UPDATE | 12:19 AM ETJosh Marshall and Andrew Sullivan are among Kerry-backing blogs starting to wonder what's gone wrong, and one obvious culprit is the youth vote, the group that P. Diddy tried to motivate in a "Vote or Die" get-out-the-vote campaign. Mr. Sullivan is blunt once again: "We were all suckered on that one."

FLORIDA TO BUSH? | 11:58 PM ET Most of the networks have now called Florida for Bush, giving the Republican blogs the confirmation that they have been screaming for. Red State claims to be the first to call Florida for Mr. Bush; Instapundit got so frustrated he told the networks, "I'll call it for you"; and the National Review piled on too.

To call the Kerry-friendly early exit polls "unreliable" was convenient for the National Review, and also correct. Some bloggers are starting to feel burned, including Wonkette, who hinted that her staff "really, really believe we got played" by those birdies mentioned earlier.

SOMETHING TO DO | 11:21 PM ETAndrew Sullivan unabashedly admits that the tension is wearing him down: "Goddammit! I just want it to be over!" Unfortunately, it's not over yet, and until the final result seems a hopeless goal for tonight, most of us will have to keep watching. Herewith, something to do...

ROLLER COASTER | 10:38 PM ETNational Review's The Corner, the blog that listed today 57 reasons that John Kerry can't win, has been an emotional mess today, and lately there's sunshine in nearly every post. Even New Jersey, a state put in Kerry's column by every network and The Times, is back in play, according to one of their sources.

Daily Kos's disappointment over President Bush's projected win in Arkansas was registered, but not too deeply. Mr. Bush's position wasn't in doubt until former President Bill Clinton joined the trail a little more than a week ago, causing some pro-Kerry bloggers to dream a little.

TIMES TV COMPANION | 10:04 PM ET Who are the "three blind mice" on television tonight? The Times's Frank Bruni has identified them in one of his first posts about election night television. He'll be writing late into the night on NYTimes.com...
• Go to Watching the Returns

LOOSE ENDS | 9:47 PM ET With the polling data looking tighter, many blogs are trying to kill time until something decisive pops up. Here are a couple of updates.

STOP RALPH NADER! advertisements run on many left-leaning blogs. Did they overhype that threat, along with those G.O.P. observers in Ohio? Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly predicts that he'll get less than 1 percent of the vote.

Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat who lit up the Democratic convention, didn't shock anyone with an avalanche win over Alan Keyes. Results of the Senate races are pouring into this page.

The Brookings Institution announced a news conference in two days about the "Direction of U.S. Foreign Policy," which is interesting because the man holding it, James B. Steinberg, was deputy national security adviser to President Clinton and is presumably a candidate for a top job in a Kerry administration. We'll probably be heading in the right direction in that case.

RAPID FIRE | 8:59 PM ETInstapundit, a reservoir of Bush boosting led by Glenn Reynolds, is publishing mini-outbursts on everything from the elections in Nigeria to a wheel tax proposal in his hometown. News from NBC that Kerry is doing well among the 18-29 set leads him to guess that the "bogus draft rumors worked," but perhaps prematurely.

Powerline passed on an Associated Press report that fewer than 10 percent of new voters were young. That blog reached out to an unexpected source for evidence of Bush's strength on Election Day, quoting AOL's exit poll putting his lead at 57-41. At least it tried to add an odd bit of perspective: AOL's poll was "completely unscientific, but is it any less so than the exit polls whose numbers are flying around the Web?"

Inexplicably, Instapundit followed his "bogus draft" post with a victory declaration — over Osama bin Laden. "If he could have bombed us, he would have," he wrote.

CHANGE OF MOOD | 8:17 PM ET At this point in the night, almost anyone can agree with Drudge's latest banner: "ENOUGH OF THE MEDIA POLLS; LET'S COUNT THE PEOPLE'S VOTES!" But how can we ignore the latest projections? Media Matters is monitoring all the major television networks, and they are meticulously recording when each network makes their calls.

VOTING BOOTH WATCH | 8:05 PM ET Joshua Micah Marshall's blog woke up from the "friggin’ nightmare" that was his server problems by slapping a big fat "gonzo" label on Fox News, one of his favorite targets. He said that it has refused to let go of a story on voter fraud in Philadelphia. Deputy City Commissioner Ed Schulgen agress with him. The charges are "absolutely ridiculous," he said.

In other battlegrounds, the Miami Herald reports "no major problems" and somewhat less importantly, "no punch lines that mention Florida." The Cleveland Plain-Dealer's blog saw long lines as the only big problem at Ohio's polls. Democratic fears about voter intimidation by Republican observers never panned out.

ALREADY, DUELING PREDICTIONS | 7:34 PM ET The recuperated Wonkette passes on a Black Table report that a CNN anchor has canceled plans to cover a Bush victory rally. He may want to think again. The National Review is quoting Bush officials sounding supremely confident that he has won.

KICK OFF | 7:02 PM ET Welcome to Watching the Web, a special edition of Times on the Trail, where NYTimes.com will provide a roundup of political chat from the blogosphere.

The major news homepages are predictably leading with articles on the voter turnout along with empty maps of the United States waiting for their political paint. Fox News is the exception, already projecting President Bush as the winner in Indiana, Kentucky and Georgia. No surprises there.

Blogs have been even more aggressive, with The Drudge Report and Wonkette, posting exit polls (traditionally kept secret by major news organizations until the polls close) that showed leads for Senator John Kerry in most battleground states. Drudge said that his "exit poll mania" came from the National Election Pool, while Wonkette coyly attributed "a little birdy."

Democratic blogs like Daily Kos were quick to note the good news in a cautious way, while their Republican counterparts like the National Review’s The Corner immediately rebutted them in post after post and in a top headline blaring "Early Exit Polls 'Very Unreliable.'" Both sides are eagerly waiting more concrete figures.

Demand for the exit polls was apparently very high, and several sites posting them, including Wonkette and Slate, were difficult to reach. Wonkette still seems down.

TRAIL MIX 11.05.04Editors' Note: Trail's End
Friday, Nov. 5, is the final day this feature will appear.

Interactive Feature: The Final Tally
Todd Purdum of The Times on how the president got re-elected, and what it means for the next four years. With video of Tuesday's speeches by President Bush and Senator Kerry.

Next Up for Bush StrategistBy TODD S. PURDUM and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICKKarl Rove, the architect of President Bush's re-election, is now in a position to realize his goal of consolidating a Republican electoral majority for a generation to come.

Despite G.O.P. Gain, Fight Over Judges RemainsBy SHERYL GAY STOLBERGAlthough Republicans made significant gains on Election Day, their majority of 55 senators still falls five votes short of the 60 needed to break a Democratic filibuster.

FROM THE ARCHIVEThe Multilevel Marketing of the President By MATT BAIIn March, The Times magazine looked at the election effort in Ohio and asked the question: Can old-fashioned door-to-door politics — combined with an Amway-style organizational pyramid — get George W. Bush re-elected?Go to Article